


fortune favors the bold

by chasingforeverandaday



Category: Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, I Don't Even Know, because that's basically what this is, is a dungeons and dragons au a thing?, the plot bunnies attacked
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-08 04:19:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasingforeverandaday/pseuds/chasingforeverandaday
Summary: In which our favorite band of dorks are adventurers in a fantasy world, Lenore is so done with everyone, and somehow there's only one bard in this party...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who plays Dungeons and Dragons, surprise? I have no idea where this came from, but I had a blast writing it. I have no idea if I'll ever manage to continue it, but I think it stands alone pretty well. If anyone wants to know the imaginary classes for everyone, just let me know.
> 
> To anyone who reads my other stories: Hi guys! I'm alive and have had an enormous case of writer's block for months, so hopefully by getting this written I'll unclog that and have some new chapters of 'don't trust the devil inside' or new parts in the 'many, many friends' AU coming soon.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, and interpretive dance are greatly appreciated in the comments below.

Even though there was an entire floor of the inn between them, Lenore could still hear the others loudly discussing (read: arguing like children) the plan to break into the dungeons and retrieve their erstwhile druids. Certain people were advocating for a far less subtle route than the one chosen, but certain people had already lost the vote and therefore needed to accept it and move on. They all knew time was of the essence and bickering like cats and dogs wasn’t going to help matters at all. Honestly, you’d think they’d all be happier not to have to put themselves in the crossfire, but apparently everyone wanted to play hero today. 

Of course, for Lenore there were certain upsides to being the only member of their party with any form of manipulation skills whatsoever, not the least of which being that she was the one in charge of the prison break. Sure between Edgar and Ernest they could probably blast their way into the fortress, but where would the fun in that be? Any sort of explosion of the loud and obnoxious variety (Ernest) or the emanating thick black smoke variety (Edgar) totally eliminated any sense of plausible deniability that they might be not be responsible for said explosion. Her idiots and their particular talents were well known, and they needed to get in and out of this godforsaken town quickly and quietly. Nope, the flirting and charming route would work far better in gaining access to the princess’s palace. And talking her way into tight quarters was one of Lenore’s specialties. The guards wouldn’t know what hit them.

Pausing to give her disguise a final once over in the grime covered mirror, Lenore smacked her lips and pouted, pushing out her chest a bit for the full effect. Satisfied with her appearance, she flounced out of the room she shared with Annabel and trekked down the creaking stairs to her arguing friends. Rounding the corner, she found them bent over a set of blueprints at the large table in the corner of the bar they’d claimed as their own weeks ago, huffing and pointing fingers as they continued their debate. As much as this was a stressful situation, there was such a thing as being far too obvious about semi-nefarious plans. She was going to have to bribe the owners to forget about them again, she just knew it. 

Rolling her eyes, Lenore stomped over and whipped the maps out from under their hands, ignoring the injured squawking as she rolled them and handed them over to a grim looking Mary. Their medic gripped the scrolls tightly, smacking Georgie over the knuckles when she tried to grab for them. Cocking her hip, Lenore turned back to the boys who were still muttering under their breaths about stupid plans and blasting into the castle. 

“Are you done being idiots yet or do I have to go through another three rounds of bickering before Em and I can get our sneaky sneak on and pull a prison break?”

“You know, technically, it’s a dungeon break,” Oscar piped up. He was the only one who looked at ease, tilting his chair back with his feet kicked up on the table. “I mean let’s call it like it is, Princess definitely went all out on the dark and creepy sub basement with the ominous, rattling chains and dripping water from her freaking moat.”

Hand to her forehead, Lenore gestured vaguely at her casters. “Can one of you…”  
Before anyone could summon more than a few sparks of magical energy, there was an echoing thud as Oscar suddenly found himself flat on the floor. As one, they all turned to their hulking monk, who merely shrugged and continued drinking his ale calmly, as if he hadn’t just kicked the legs out from under his friend’s chair.

Clapping her hands to regain everyone’s attention, Lenore started again brightly. “Thank you Fyodor. Oscar, shut it unless you have any helpful suggestions. Now, Emily and I are going to head over to the tavern the guards frequent and see who can pick someone up the fastest. She whom does will slip said guard a bit of our fabulous little suggestion potion, thank you HG, and bring him back to the castle grounds. We’ll meet up there and use his keys to get ourselves inside, leaving him in the bushes for our lovely wizard to take care of.”

“And by take care of, you mean…” HG started hesitantly.

“Scramble up his memories a bit, make sure he can’t identify any of us from tonight. I don’t expect you to kill him darling, that’s far more Em’s speed.” She glanced over at Emily, who was staring off into the distance as she played with a dagger. “Anyways, the pair of us will get in and head down to the dungeons, where we’ll break the girls out and then be on our merry way.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re forgetting about fifteen other steps in there, and really, you should bring a more accomplished caster in with you, who knows what traps Princess might have added in, I mean she knows we’re in town and -” With a flick of her wrist, Lenore silenced her brother’s worried rambling, glaring at him until he finally stopped trying to talk and sat back down in his chair, arms crossed grumpily.

“No further questions? Alright, let’s get to work.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because nothing ever goes according to plan. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm continuing this. Yes, I know I have multiple other WIPs I should probably be working on. But, I'm enjoying this immensely so I am going to continue this story. As of right now, I don't imagine it will be more than a few chapters, but we'll see how it goes. I do have finals next week, so I would not expect any updates (on anything) until after those. Also, my DnD group is playing tonight, so I'm super pumped for that! Yay!
> 
> For anyone who wanted to know the general classes of everyone, I'm adding a quick guide. Now, certain characters may be more of a multi-class, but here are their main archetypes:  
> Lenore: Rogue  
> Annabel: Druid  
> Emily: Rogue  
> HG: Wizard  
> Edgar: Sorcerer  
> Ernest: Warlock  
> Oscar: Bard  
> Mary: Cleric  
> Georgie: Fighter  
> Fyodor: Monk  
> Louisa May: Druid

Flinging arcane bolts at the people chasing him, Edgar yelled over the fray, “This was not a part of the plan!” He ducked behind a large chunk of rubble (with a reluctant mental thank you to Ernest’s penchant for destruction), and glared over at his sister.

As she slammed into the torso of the guard bearing down on her, Lenore exasperatedly called back, “Now is not the time!” Quickly flipping her dagger, she dug it deep into the gap of his armor and, grunting at his weight, threw him over her shoulder. Blowing hair out of her face, she faced off against his friend, gripping both of her daggers tightly.

Leering down at her, he grinned, sheathing his sword and approaching her with his hands out in an attempt to placate her. “Now sweetheart, why don’t you just put those little knives down and come quietly? I’m sure I can work something out with my superiors to get you a more,” he blatantly looked her up and down, “ _flexible_ sentence.”

“You’re not serious?” She laughed under her breath, not even feeling sorry for what she was about to do. As he ran at her, she started to say, in an almost conversational tone, “Oh my gods, you just saw what I did to that idiot and you really-” as she slid between his legs as he lunged for her, “-thought-” jumped onto his back, “you” worked one arm around his head, “had a chance” lifted his chin, “against me?” and slit his throat. She dropped his now limp body. “Such an idiot.” Flicking her dagger to get rid of the bastard’s blood, she glanced towards the doorway, where more guards were gathering. Turning back to her brother, she yelled over the din, “Edgar, I could use a little help over here!”

“Oh now you want my help! You deviated from the plan, which I did not support, by the- DOWN!” Eyes wide, he flung his hand in her direction, sparks forming instantaneously.

Years of instinct kicked in and Lenore dropped like a stone, an arc of lightning blasting over her head into the group approaching her from behind. As they fell, stunned, she rolled to her knees, grinning in her brother’s direction. “Thank you!”

“You suck!” He still provided cover fire as she made a run over to him, somersaulting behind the broken piece of castle wall he was casting over.

As she paused to catch her breath, Lenore reached up and tugged her brother’s ear affectionately. “I know you are, but what am I?”

He huffed, entirely exasperated, and glowered down at her. “That doesn’t even make grammatical sense!”

"You don't make grammatical sense!"

“Will you two knock it off?” Whipping their heads to the left, Lenore and Edgar saw Georgie behead the man she was fighting in the next room. “Honestly,” she paused to swing her sword onto her shoulder and lean against the doorway, “some of us would prefer to get out of here without any of your sibling inflicted injuries, thank you very much!”

Glancing to each other, said siblings silently formed a momentary truce in favor of escaping this deathtrap of a castle. Speaking of which, Lenore looked down at her attire, barmaid disguise entirely unsuitable for battle. She closed her eyes and murmured quietly under her breath. As her low cut blouse and long layered skirts melted into her normal armor and pants, she called over to Georgie, “You are such an only child!”

“Yeah, and? You two couldn’t get along if we forced you to!” With that, she ran back into the fray, whooping in bloodlust.

Lenore grinned and retorted, mostly to herself, “Been there, tried that, didn’t work.” To Edgar, she asked, “Hey, can you grab the rest of my gear from the inn?”

He laughed under his breath, “Our parents were so happy when we moved out.” Pause. “Where did you leave it?”

“Well, we still lived together, they were just finally out of the blast zone. In my room, on the bed, next to my bag.”

“Rent was cheaper that way and who else wanted to live with a trainee sorcerer and a thieves guild apprentice?” Gripping his ring, Edgar muttered in that foreign, magical language she had never been able to understand, before suddenly reaching out and pulling her quiver, bow, and armguards out of thin air in front of him. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Swinging the quiver over her shoulder, Lenore kissed his cheek before nocking an arrow. She and Edgar both took a deep breath, nodded, and as one said, “Now.” Popping up from their cover, her eyes quickly latched onto a guard. She released her arrow, barely glancing to make sure she hit him before moving to her next target. Mechanically, she worked her way through the right half, trusting that her brother could handle the other.

As the bodies began to pile up in front of them, they slowly backed into the next room, the towering great hall where the rest of their group were clashing with the guards. With a few quick peeks over her shoulder, Lenore maneuvered herself and her brother in the direction of Mary, who had set up a small, shielded area for triage.

As soon as they were past the doorway, Edgar slammed up a force field to block off the guards before they turned to run over to Mary and her charges. Both skidding to a stop, Edgar fell to his knees beside Annabel while Lenore remained standing, not letting her guard down. “How are they?” Hovering over her, he moved to brush a hand over her hair, before stopping himself when he saw she was barely moving. A panicked look in his eyes, he glanced between Annabel and Louisa, who was also completely still, before turning to Mary. “She's not moving, why aren’t they moving?”

“They’re **fine**.” With gritted teeth, she swatted Edgar away, holding her lightly glowing hands over Annabel’s calm face. “She’s in a healing trance, they both are. They’re okay, I mean ideally I would not be doing this in the middle of a battle, but beggars can’t be choosers.” Switching her assessing gaze to Lenore, Mary asked, “Any injuries I need to take care of immediately? On either of you?”

“We’re both fine, just some minor scrapes and bruising that I’ll complain about tomorrow.” Stretching, Lenore arched her back and swiveled her neck until it cracked. “Oh, that felt good.”

Disgusted, the other woman made a face. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?”

“At least a hundred more.” Pulling at the neck of her brother’s shirt to grab his attention, she gestured towards the still ongoing fight around them. “C’mon, we need to go. Clear the way so Mary can get them out safely.”

“Lenore…” Edgar looked torn, the idea of leaving his Annabel’s side unthinkable, but knowing he was one of their best weapons to get out of the fortress. “Fine, I’m coming. We need to get them out before-”

He was cut off by an arcane green blast at the front of the room, the bright color reflecting off the walls and filling the room as the main doors blew off their hinges. The room was plunged into an unnatural silence. A slight figure stalked in leisurely, keen eyes narrowing on the intruders to her home. With a smug sneer, she declared, “Oh, hello my darlings. You didn’t really think I’d be letting you leave without saying goodbye, now did you?”

Feeling the spell wear off, Lenore shook her head as Edgar finished, “-that happens. Well, shit.”


End file.
